Pre-opera conundrum...help please!

My friend and I have tickets to the opera at the Kennedy Center this weekend, which has an early 6:00 pm start time to accommodate the 4+ hour run time. Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind was how to fit in a good meal that would keep me relatively satiated until I could indulge in dessert after the opera. So, I pose this challenge to you:

Can you recommend a restaurant/tapas/wine bar that would serve at a late-lunch/early dinner time (4:30, 5:00?) for two young professionals on non-profit budgets that are thrilled to have the chance to dress up and be sophisticated? Location could be West End, Downtown, Dupont Circle, maybe Penn Quarter - anywhere around Foggy Bottom and/or Metro accessible so that we can grab the shuttle from GW to the KenCen in time.

Taberna del Alberdero is a wonderful Spanish restaurant that serves great tapas. Unfortunatly the more budget-concious way to go about things is to take part in their excellent happy hour deal (1/2 off tapas and Sangria) but I'm not sure if they have the HH deal on weekends. Still the bar part of the restaurant is worth checking out, for the croquettas alone. :)

Another option would be to walk into Georgetown and eat at Bodega. It's a short walk (12-15 minutes) from the Foggy Bottom metro. You can grab tapas (again the croquettes are great, but the scallops I had in a caper sauce was also delicious) and some wine before the show and then head to Penn Quarter afterwards for dessert (I recommend CoCo Sala).